"
"Saleratus Bill!" cried Bob, enlightened as to the trailer's recent
activities in the Basin.
"It will be easy to establish not only Pollock's guilt, but your own as
accessory. That will put you hard and fast behind the bars--where you
belong."
In this last speech Oldham made his one serious mistake of the
interview. So long as he had appealed to Bob's feelings for, and sense
of duty toward, other men, he had succeeded well in still further
confusing the young man's decision. But at the direct personal threat,
Bob's combative spirit flared. Suddenly his troubled mind was clarified,
as though Oldham's menace had acted as a chemical reagent to
precipitate all his doubts. Whatever the incidental hardships, right
must prevail. And, as always, in the uprooting of evil, some unlucky
innocent must suffer. It is the hardship of life, inevitable, not to be
blinked at if a man is to be a man, and do a man's part. He leaned
forward with so swift a movement that Oldham involuntarily dodged back.
"You tell your boss," said Bob, "that nothing on God's earth can keep me
out of court."
He threw away his half-smoked cigar and went back to the chair car.
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